Wine – The complete package

As well as growing grapes and making wines, the Matakana Winegrowers spend a lot of time and effort working to promote and sell not just our own products, but the region as a whole. We inevitably find that while people love good wine, they also want to know about the people and places behind it, too.

Whether it’s at wine tastings, food festivals or at our own cellar doors, telling the story of what makes the Matakana region so special is just as important as the wine inside each bottle.

In the past year, we’ve been involved in a range of diverse promotional activities, including revamping our website and boosting our Facebook presence, providing wine for a range of high-profile events and festivals, and making sure local wine has a strong presence in a new, upcoming Matakana Community Cookbook.

We have also hosted Rebecca Gibb, an English writer and Master of Wine who is writing a major new book on New Zealand wines, providing her with an extensive tasting, regional tour and local lunch to showcase Matakana wine and food, and we held a trade tasting event for local restaurants, bottle shop owners and accommodation providers so they could get to know our wines.

In addition, we will also shortly be printing a new and updated Matakana Wine Trail Map and brochure, which will be available throughout the district. This includes a detailed map and information on the 10 vineyards, venues and restaurants where Matakana wines are available for tasting and purchase, plus eight others that are open by appointment, or sell by mail order or online.

In the near future, we will again be heavily involved with the second Oyster & Wine Festival at the Matakana Country Park on Sunday, October 7, and we are planning to celebrate our many delicious local rosé wines with activities around New Zealand’s own Rosé Day, on February 5.

Such activities are crucial for the group, not only so that we can sell the wines we’ve worked all year to grow, make and bottle, but because local, well-made wines are a huge drawcard to the region as a whole. People visit Matakana and the surrounding towns and villages for many reasons, but our markets, our food and our wine are undoubtedly three of the most talked-about temptations that bring in countless visitors every year. We are fortunate to be able to offer such a complete package, one that allows visitors to share and enjoy great quality artisanal wine and food grown and made on the doorstep, and which reflects the region, its people and its stories, and we are proud to do so.
Info: matakanawine.co.nz or Matakana Wine Trail on Facebook

Richard Robson, President, Matakana Winegrowers
www.matakanawine.co.nz